Sitting in the coffee shop....the same one that I sit in five mornings a week, drinking my coffee, feeling the day dawn in front of me. Pondering just what today might hold in store for me. I hold the letter in front of me...rereading it...want to get it right.
I have been reading a new letter each Monday for the last 6 months. Most of them are along the same theme. Meet new people...one each week...learn to live again. I belong to a unique group. It is for shy folks like me...too shy to even attend a group meeting.
Each week on Monday an inspirational letter arrives, sometimes with instructions for the next day, sometimes just a note with some feel good motivational message. Most times, I read the letters but freeze before I can act on them. Yesterdays letter was different. More detailed, more direct, no veiled innuendos, no feel good message...just a get out and do set of instructions.
So,here I am...the same as usual but so different. I dressed as the letter told me to, am sitting in my usual seat and watching the people as they come and go,carefully scanning the crowd...looking for the person that is described in the letter. Shrinking into my chair, my breath catches.
There he is, at the counter...he is ordering a coffee with milk and a croissant. He is in his mid fifties, has a suit jacket on...striped tie and a briefcase held casually in his left hand. The fingers that grip the handle are ring-less.